Saturday, June 28, 2014

Off the Hardrock Wait List and Off the Sofa

I recently got news that I'm off the Hardrock 100 wait list and am officially entered to run the race in two weeks (7/11/14). In the lottery to enter the race held last December, I'd been drawn last and occupied the bottom of the "veterans" wait list with little chance of getting in this year. Or, so I thought.

I've done almost no running since last October when I finished the Grand Slam of the World. Work, family commitments and other projects have taken up my time. Hardrock is one of the toughest athletic events in the world and it's a crazy decision to run the race at this point, but I'll try it. Lots of hiking planned this year and if I make it 100 miles and "kiss the rock" at the finish, it'll be a miracle.

Just got back from Buenos Aires this morning.

"Motor Bike" in San Telmo, Buenos Aires

Update:

Well, that wasn’t pretty. I got about 44 miles into the Hardrock Hundred before I dropped.As posted above, I was way undertrained this year. I unexpectedly got off the wait-list and officially entered into the race about two weeks prior. However, I’ve run enough 100’s and run Hardrock enough (6 times) to know how to get it done. It didn’t work this year.First, I went out with too hard an effort for my fitness level. Later, when descending in the rain into Telluride at 28 miles, I took a bad fall on a rocky trail. My knee was banged and bloodied as I limped into the Telluride aid station and met my family. I then pressed on another 16 miles until Ouray before I dropped.My plan going into 2014 was to take the year off from running ultra's. It's going to be hard, but I need to stick with that plan and recover from the past 10 years of a lot of hard racing.